BAY VILLAGE, Ohio -- Bay Village police are looking at possible links between a Seven Hills man and the 1989 disappearance and slaying of 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic.

The man in question is Frank Dienes Jr., 44, who remains in the Cuyahoga County Jail, charged with aggravated murder and related offenses for the March shooting death of Joe Kopp.

Kopp's body was found buried behind Dienes' house. He was a homeless man who lived for a time in Dienes' garage.

Bay Village Lt. Mark Spaetzel said Kopp "had gone around telling people that Dienes was involved" in Amy's disappearance.

Her body was found in a rural area of Ashland County. Spaetzel said the Dienes family owned property about eight or nine miles from the site.

Dienes would have been 22 at the time of Amy's disappearance.

Bay Village police interviewed Dienes in 1995 in connection with the abduction-slaying, the lieutenant said Friday. "He was called in as a look-alike suspect."

There is also a possibility that Dienes might have done some work for one of Amy's parents. They separated not long after her disappearance, and it is not clear which one may have employed him. Dienes ran a floor-finishing business.

Spaetzel said his department is aware Kopp had a history of mental illness and noted that even if he did tell people about Dienes, "We didn't get any calls from Joe Kopp."

Ian Friedman, Dienes' lead attorney in the Kopp case, said that "our sole focus is on the indicted case against Mr. Dienes. But there is no information that anything has changed since Bay Village police closed their investigation almost two decades ago."

He said, "It was my understanding that [Dienes] was eliminated as a suspect" in the Mihaljevic case.

"Understandably, people do want to figure out what happened to the girl," Friedman said. "I am glad people are revisiting every possibility, and we hope his family can find closure. But the answer is not going to be found with Mr. Dienes."

The defense attorney and the police lieutenant sounded the same cautionary note when they warned there are many rumors circulating, fueled by people heedless of the difference between rumor and fact.

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